D ч є тнє в l α c к
by PrayTonight
Summary: Dying should have led my soul to Heaven, dying should have led my soul to peace, dying should have led my soul to the end for my final rest. Instead... dying led me to death. OC-centric
1. Chapter 1

Dye the **BLACK**

—

**Summary:** Dying should have led my soul to Heaven, dying should have led my soul to peace, dying should have led my soul to the end for my final rest. Instead... dying led me to death.

**Rating:** T for violence, strong language, and some adult content.

**Disclaimer:** BLEACH belongs to Tite-sensei, Akasuki belonged to **Reige**, this story is adopted by me.

**A/N:** This fic is formally known as _"I DYED"_ but is erased due to another author's complicated matter she has to deal with. I've gained permission to adopt this story and I plan to use this story to the fullest potential! Give hope and praise to this story!

* * *

If you love someone, then tell them because  
Hearts are often broken by words left unspoken  
~ _Anonymous_

* * *

_It's the moments before that everything matters. I can only stare at the big blue sky endlessly as everything is beginning to become quiet and still, all the excitement and loud ruckus slowly dying to a mute. I slowly begin to succumb into the deep never ending sleep that had been known to human society for many, many ages. Like everyone and myself have heard, it is an infamous event that occurs without warning, no knowledge. It just happens and that's what living is all about._

A football nearly slams into my head.

"Watch it!"

Denny Burkenston only winced at the shrill voice, tail tucked between his feet as he saunters over and claims back his football he passed around with big Derk Whitiker. I glare at the somewhat tall, slim sandy-brown haired boy before facing my girlfriends Brooke Salet and Wendy Emery, both girls trying to stifle their laughter behind books and fingers.

"Ha ha, very funny." I grumble while glaring scathingly at their forms.

"I'm sorry," Brooke breathed out, giggles imbued in her tone.

"Want me to get him for you, Su?"

_Oh~_ Brian Yate is lying down on the soft field grass leaning towards my direction as he quietly said these words to me, his handsome face set in determination to take out any threat against his friends, including other friends. My face glowed red for a moment but I looked away so that he would not see and instead focused my attention on Denny, putting up a thinking face before deciding that the man's death isn't worth the trouble.

"No, I decide he lives." I tell the big brunet before offering him a sly smirk. "For now."

Brian allowed himself a chuckle, lying back down on the grass and resuming his nap. My eyes soften looking at him, knowing him for almost a year and yet seeming forever because of all the fun I had with him. Sweet, kind-hearted, rowdy, boyish, and fun-loving is the kind of guy Brian is... that girl he's going out with should be lucky to have him as a boyfriend.

My hands clench the edges of the text book for a brief second.

I force myself to tear my eyes away from him and blush when I see Brooke and Wendy giving me those sly looks of their own, the expressions on their face saying _'you-know-you-want-to-tap-that-ass'_. I shake it off and resume where we left off on the lesson our math teacher has assigned to us all.

"Practice sucked today." Derk remarks as he sits down next to Wendy, giving her a quick kiss on the pretty blond's cheek.

She returns the sentiment by letting her fingers twine with his shaggy dirty blond hair and give him a pouty face. "Why is that, baby?"

"Steve McCoy," Denny answers as he stands over us all. "Kept messing up at practice. Coach had him benched and every time Steve said he was all good he just went and messed it up again. Pissed off a lot of the guys, too."

"Yeah," Brooke speaks up from her seat on the blanket. "I heard he's been going through counseling the past week because of some incident between his parents."

"What do you mean?" I ask, intrigued.

"I don't know much and this could be some stupid rumor," Brooke leans in close and everyone listens quietly. "They say there's some fight going on, like, dad beating up the mom and kid."

"I kinda had figured that part." Brian gestures to his shoulders, chest, and arms. "I saw all sorts of bruises on him when we were changing, kept telling the coach it's just practice and it's nothing."

"Why isn't the police doing anything?" Wendy demands, looking at each of our faces. "Shouldn't they lock that shit-head behind bars?"

"They just barely found out. This shit was going on since McCoy was in the 4th grade."

"Oh, that's fucked up..."

"I gotta go home." I announce as I stand and gather all my things.

"Need a walk home?" Brian offered while handing over my back pack.

"Oooh~!" Denny and Derk teased us, I turn beat red and shoved both tall boys.

"God, you guys are annoying!" I snap and then turn to Brian with a crooked smile. "It's okay. I'm good, I'll be okay. Thanks anyway."

I turn and leave the group, walking down the dirt road for a few minutes away from the park before my brain slammed me and I groaned in despair as Brian's words repeated over my head like a mantra. Sweet, sweet Brian just offered me a walk home and I stupidly declined the offer!

"Oh, Su, you silly girl..." I mutter as I resume the walk home.

**~.::.~.::.~.::.~**

Babysitting isn't my thing, especially when it comes to me taking care of a 5 year old boy who is stubborn to stay awake past his bed time.

"Ben," I call out as I hear the sound of tiny feet paddling on the wooden floor. "I know it's you. Go back to bed, no more cartoons."

"No!" came the reply.

"Do it or I'll call boogeyman."

"... No!"

"You asked for it, squirt." I mutter as I drop my pencil and head for my room.

I flick the closet light on and look inside to see where my Halloween costume from 2 years ago is and let out a small "aha!" before pulling out of the rack. Hanging before me is my Scream costume, complete with the bloody Ghostface mask and rubber knife. I pull it on me and check myself before I stalk the halls, letting out creepy noise to alert my brother of what's coming for him. I hear the television screen on playing some late cartoon shows and I head to the area.

"OooOoooh~" I loudly announce my presence, peaking behind the corner to see Ben indeed in the living room... and hiding behind the coach with his eyes wide and frightened. "OOooooooOOOOooooH~!"

"Suki!" Ben cries out, huddling onto the coach.

"I gonna get you~ Benny~!" I hiss at the boy. "You didn't listen to your sister, now I'm going to get you~!"

"No, no, no!" Ben is in hysterics now, crying for my name.

"Will you go to bed~?" I ask. "Go to bed I will go away~ Far away~!"

"Mmm...!" he replied, and I knew he played right into my hands.

"Go to bed, Benny~!" I hiss loudly and the little boy shuffles off quickly to his bed while crying his eyes out.

I stand there for a few minutes, making sure the little peepster doesn't plan on trying again and I finally drop the gig. I switch the television off and head back to my room to remove my Halloween get up and return to studying my text book.

My thoughts suddenly wandered to Steve McCoy, the senior classmate that had troubles from home follow him to school. He was a good-looking fellow with nice dark hair and beautiful blue eyes, but his attitude was a total turn-off. To the girls he had been previously with, they described him as controlling, angry, and just troubled. A lot of people say that sort of thing is there because of what kind of environment he was raised in, his dad being a drunk mechanic with temperament issues, his mom unhappy and trying to find comfort... with other men. Yeah, didn't need to take math to know what that added up.

I shake off the thoughts and look down to my homework. I'm a 14 year old Freshman at High School, I don't need to be thinking about that sort of thing, just boys, friends, and homework. Period.

Yet... Why couldn't I erase the unease coming over me? The chill that spread through when I hear Steve's name...

**~.::.~.::.~.::.~**

"Jenna's pissed off at me for forgetting her shoes at my house this morning." Brian said as he tosses his football repeated in the air from his desk. "I told her I get it for her later but she's still bitching and whining to me."

"Why are you even going out with that chick? She's a total bitch to most of the girl population." Wendy makes a pose. " 'Oh, my god! Those shoes don't go with her scarf! Oh, my god! She's totally going begin Drake's back with Johnny! Oh, my god!' "

"Evens years later the school does not seem to change from the stereotypical preps and jocks, all remain to be dumb and stupid as ever."

"Hey!" the three boys cut in, offended.

"You're all excluded, you're all too precious for this world!" Brooke squeals as she hugs Denny.

"That's right." Denny nods smugly and nods his head to his red-head girlfriend. "She recognizes this fine piece of ass."

"You're dead to me." I said.

"Ouch, Su!" Denny winces and fake sobs into Brooke's arms.

"You could do better than her." Wendy comments to Brian, giving him a long meaningful look.

Brian ducks his head down, looking elsewhere but never at anyone else. I feel a little down, knowing that whomever Brian is thinking about is very lucky. I'm a small, young girl and I don't stand a chance being in a relationship with this wonderful, amazing guy that's been nothing but good to me since I first met him in my starting year of High School.

The classroom is absent with the substitute teacher since the teacher has accidentally forgotten to leave a note of going to see his dentist. That left us a free half hour in his class, doing whatever we wanted and try not to get caught doing it. Everyone is texting on their phones, listening to their iPods, talking to their buddies, sleeping, doodling, just simply doing nothing.

Brian looks up and opens his mouth—

_**Bang!**_

I and the others are rendered silence when the sound of something terrifying and dreadful echoed in our ears, the whole class that had been loud and lively was replaced by an air of shock and horror. No one dared to speak, all of us listening until we all jumped when another loud crack came through the silent air and everyone suddenly is on their feet or knees, the room in sheer panic mode. Denny whips his head towards us, and of all the time I've known him, I've never seen his face so... so frantically scared.

"Tell me that wasn't a gun!" he looks at us with growing hysterics. "Tell me that wasn't a gun going off!"

"Get down and shut the fuck up!" Brian growls as he drags everyone down under the desks. "Lock the door!"

Those people. The survivors that we saw on television or on radio stations that had been in situations likes these, they were all right about one main thing; one minute there is peace and the next you're trying to get the hell out alive.

"Somebody calls the cops! NOW!" Brian demands.

"Hello!" one student cries in her cellphone.

"No, no! You get a squad here! There's shooting, I'm serious, please!" another student babbles on, tears flowing down his cheeks.

"Please, hurry!" I see one student say continuously like a mantra, clutching his phone like a life line.

_**Bang!**_

Everyone jumps at the sound, some of them letting out pitiful wails. I duck my head and try to myself into a ball but it didn't help soften the blow that there's a shooter out and the last shot sounds a lot closer than the last two. I feel someone place their arm over my small form and I chance a peek to see Brian looming over me, his bigger body shielding me from the front of the door and I wished nothing more that this could have gone differently. I lean against the older teen and let my tears fall, I let out a sob as he held me tightly and whispered sweetly into my ear.

"I won't let you die, Su. I'm not gonna let you die. I swear to you, babe, I ain't gonna let you die."

I've heard all kinds of stories, watching so many episodes of "I Shouldn't Be Alive" out of boredom. People taking hostages out of revenge, ransom, politics or the worst kind; people with mental issues. The shooter leaving the world with a bang after taking out a few innocent people with them, no happy ending for the shooter should they live or die.

**_BANG!_**

"Oh God!" Brooke cries and Denny holds her down to keep her from running out of the class and getting her shot dead. "I wanna go home! I wanna go home!"

"Tell the cops to hurry the fuck up!" Brian growls at Derk and Wendy.

"They're on the way!" one of the students replied, a note of relief in his tone. "They sent a dispatch, they're coming!"

_**BANG! BANG!**_

"We gotta get outta here." Denny declares as he holds his petrified girlfriend. "There's no way out but the windows outside."

"Are you crazy?" Brian immediately shoots the idea down but Denny is persistent.

"Do you wanna die?" Denny demands, glaring at the bigger football player. "Do you wanna die today?"

"No one wants to die, you dumbass!"

"Then let's get the hell out of here!" Denny snaps.

There's a long moment of debating silence, everyone whispering the chances of survival slim to none, but the sound of another round going off made their decision. Brian looked around the room, doubtful but then his dark brown eyes land on me and soften. I wanted to live, I wanted to get out and see my family, safe and sound and leave behind this nightmare. Brian looks up to the rest of us and after a moment gives a nod of the head.

"Let's go."

Brian crawls towards the door, reaching up and looking through the open window panel to see if the coast is clear, he opens the door and everyone is up and on their feet. We all huddle behind him and walk with our backs to the walls and lockers, quiet and afraid. The hallway looked longer than I usually see it, more dangerous and sinister with the power having gone out some time, most likely from the shooter.

**_BANG!_**

Everyone slams into the wall, I shut my eyes and cling to Brian's arm before I open them. Brian shuffles forward and checks the corner of the hallway—

"AAAHHH!" screamed a couple of students that stood on the other side of the hallway, everyone else joined in.

"Shh! SHUT UP!" Brian shouts and we all go quiet, my heart almost lept out from my ribcage.

"Oh God, Brian!" Jenna Hemmingway, Brian's girlfriend. Queen Bee of the school and a total slut that slept around with the best of the best on our football team. "I don't know what's happening! I don't wanna die, Brian, I don't wanna die!"

Brian allows the bleach blond girl to cling onto him before he whispers lowly that everything was going to be okay and that we'd be okay if we escape near a window. Behind her are some of her girlfriends that hover around the girl like a bunch of vultures and some other students she usually wouldn't be associated or bothered with. They all tagged along for the escape as well. Normally, I would feel an ugly green monster come when Jenna clung to Brian but right now, all I see at the moment is a very frightened young woman.

"Look! There's a water drain, it's bolted real good!" one of the students notes as he struggles to open the window, others come in to help.

"Okay everyone, get going!" another shot rang around and everyone huddled to the window. "Climb down carefully, one at a time!"

Jenna thought of herself to go down first, but no one said anything.

Brian, brave sweet Brian Yate, stayed behind and helped the students out the window, explaining to them where to hold the drain and how to slide down carefully like a pole. I stayed behind to help, trying to ease everyone as they went down and watch them as they ran off and flagged down anyone on the road for help. Over yonder, I can hear the sound of sirens coming closer to the school.

"C'mon Su, let's go." Brian says as he offers me a hand.

When I reached for his hand, I saw Brian look over my head and stiffen in fear. I stupidly turn around and found myself rooted down in fear as well, the panic replacing hope and happiness as I stared at the end of a gun barrel pointed directly at us.

Steve McCoy, 19 years old, son to Ted McCoy and Hannah McCoy, classmate of my 6th period and fellow football player to Brian, Denny, and Derk.

Steve looked... focused and determined. Dressed in black from the shirt down to his toes, and he is armed to the teeth with two pistols drawn out and aimed out way. I feel a warm hand grab my shoulder and pull me back so that I'm behind the bigger boy, Brian was scared but I remember his words from the classroom. He promised to take care of me, he promised to make sure I didn't die because he would never allow that sort of harm come to me.

"Hey, Brian." Steve says, a smile creeping up on him. "How ya doin'?"

Brian refuses to say anything, just stare at the guns.

"Oh c'mon, big man!" Steve comes towards us and I feel the menace aura come from him. "Don't let this scare you! Speak up!"

"Stop it!" Brian shouts.

"Stop what?"

"I don't what's wrong with you, but you got no right to go around shooting people dead, you sick fucker!" Brian snarls at Steve, back to the window and arm wrapped protectively around me.

"Brian..." I whimper but Brian stands firm.

"The cops are out there, right now! Listen!"

The sirens are loud but Steve didn't look to bothered, his eyes remained fixated on Brian and I felt a shiver from the cruel, cold glee shining from those blue eyes.

"I don't care, man." Steve quietly says, looking down at the floor for a moment and I saw a flash of sadness and anguish warring in him. "It don't matter anymore, of what happens to me... or you."

"You should have said something, Steve." Brian coaxes the other boy. "You should have said something and we could have helped—Hell, we can still help!"

"You don't know my dad," Steve sobs pathetically, shoulders trembling and his guns shaking from his grip. "You don't know what he does to me!"

"You're right. I have no idea, but that doesn't mean we can't help you!"

"Like I said, big guy," Steve looks up at us, the tears cascading down his eyes as he aims his gun at Brian. "It don't matter anymore."

"_NO_!"

**_BANG!_**

I'm falling, I realize, watching as the building became far away the more I fell until I landed hard on the earth below, the extra weight ontop of me. Everything went still for a moment, I can't move and I can't really see right... everything was just fuzzy. The extra weight sits up and I find myself staring in startled brown eyes. I look past him and towards the window we fell from, 3 stories high.

"S-Su?" Brian shakily calls my name. "Su?"

I blink my eyes and feel something dribble out of the corner of my mouth, I though for a second it was drool but it tasted a lot like copper. Brian looks up over me and cries for help, and I find his voice to be fading away slowly from my hearing, like he was very far away that I can't hear the words coming out of his mouth. I'm being lifted up and see two uniformed men carry me by the armpits and legs, Brian holding my back up to help carry me to safety.

I'm confused, and dazed. I cannot think right at all, it's like someone just broke my mind and shattered it into thousands of little pieces that it needed time to build itself back together.

Brian appeared scared, tears dribbling down his sweet eyes and I wish I can tell him to stop crying. He's holding my hand and saying something to me, but I... I can't hear him. The paramedics are hovering over me and trying to push Brian away but he fights back, holds onto my hand and looks to be shouting at me.

And then I remembered. I took the bullet intended for Brian. The bullet is imbedded in my left lung, causing my lungs to overflow with blood and the fall off the 3 story window broke my spine and crushed the back of my head. I'm a broken, bloody mess before Brian's eyes and I can see the white coming over my vision.

It's the moments before that everything matters. I can only stare at the big blue sky endlessly as everything is beginning to become quiet and still, all the excitement and loud ruckus slowly dying to a mute. I slowly begin to succumb into the deep never ending sleep that had been known to human society for many, many ages. Like everyone and myself have heard, it is an infamous event that occurs without warning, no knowledge. It just happens and that's what living is all about.

My eyelids become heavy as lead and I can't fight away the slumber. The last thing I feel are desperate hands grabbing my cheeks and warm droplets on my face, no matter how badly I want to open my eyes and tell Brian I'm okay and I'm not going anywhere... I can't fight the sleep anymore. I pray for everyone else to be alright, I pray for my family to be alright, I pray for my friends to be alright when I know I won't be there them.

I just wish... I wish I told Brian I love him.

And then... I died.

**~.::.~.::.~.::.~**

**Akasuki Kane**

_**Great friend, beloved daughter**_

**1998 - 2012**


	2. Chapter 2

Dye the **BLACK**

—

**Summary:** Dying should have led my soul to Heaven, dying should have led my soul to peace, dying should have led my soul to the end for my final rest. Instead... dying led me to death.

**Rating:** T for violence, strong language, and some adult content.

**Disclaimer:** BLEACH belongs to Tite-sensei, Akasuki belonged to **Reige**, this story is adopted by me.

**A/N:** Awesome, first chapter up, second chapter coming next. I wanted to put more depth between Su and her friends because the original one didn't mention much, it didn't say what sort of relationship she had with Brian, only she had a crush on him. So in this story, I intensified it and made it so that the death was more... real. Hope it works out for the best!

* * *

Life is an endless cycle of souls, swirling along the path of the universe, being reborn, but never truly dying before being reborn again.  
As long as this cycle continues, we will never really die.  
~ _Ameila Wolfe_

* * *

. . . crying.

Can you. . . ?

I'm calling. . .

. . . I'm . . .

Akasuki

My eyes flutter open, slowly, to find a blurry and shabby-looking roof above me. There are few things I'm aware of; grogginess, pain, and hunger. My mouth is dry from the lack of moisture and my head throbbed with an intense headache, but I dare not move and instead took in the sight of whatever I could at the moment.

I'm in a shack.

It's not big, just about as big as my mom and my closet combined, and the whole place is dirty and looked ready to collapse. The blanket covering me barely covers my whole body, and it looks badly stitched together—

_The fear and crying!_

_Get away, get away, get away!_

_We're gonna die, ohmygod, we're gonna die!_

_Bang! Bang!_

_I'm falling..._

_Brian!_

I let out a sob, memories pushing in and the devastation becoming much worse for me. What's going on? I wondered, I'm suppose to be dead! I was shot and my spine broken and rendering me paralyzed, I should be alive! I really shouldn't be fucking alive!

"_Oi! Subete no kono sawagi wa nanidesu ka?_" a foreign voice reaches my ears.

I blink out my miserable tears and look to the doorway to see two girls. The older of the two is but a foot taller than her companion, both sporting brown hair with only a few shades different from the other, wearing a dirty, stitched red kimono. The smaller girl is standing beside the older girl and she too is wearing a dirty, stitched orange kimono. They appear to have the same features, with some notable differences but they appear to be siblings.

It's then I catch that they're not speaking English but my mother's native language that I sometimes rarely conversed with her in seeing I'm the only Japanese-American in my school, so I obviously talk the most used language. I rack my head mentally to get the translation in my head working.

The older girl that is glaring down at me is demanding what all the noise is all about.

"G-gomenasai..." I croak out and hold back the tears.

The older girl eyes me critically before she scoffs and enters the shack, completely ignoring me and going ahead to drop down her bags of whatever she's carrying. The younger girl instead comes to my aid, looks over me before she reaches to my eyes.

"A-are you alright?"

"I... I don't know." I honestly don't know the extension of my injuries. "Where am I?"

"You're in the 67th Rukongai district; Hitodoma." the older girl said, not turning away from her work.

I blink at the two girls. I know I'm not in a hospital—Hell! I know I shouldn't be breathing either!—but why on earth would I be elsewhere than my hometown?

"Am I... in Japan?" I ask the older girl.

"_Pft_! You wish," the older girl snorts and stands up, turning to face me. "This is the Soul Society, where everyone goes when they die after a Shinigami sends you here via Soul Burial."

"What...?"

"This place," the girls gestures her hands all around her. "Is Heaven."

I stare at her.

Heaven is a place where all my pain, suffering, and sins have been cleansed away and I would be in a field with pure celestial beings that radiate with warmth and love. My past anger, sadness, frustrations, and faults washed away and replaced with happiness and content. The final place where I will rest and be at ease, no more to hurt and no more to struggle, just be okay and safe. I know I feel bad that I won't see my friends and family, not for a long while, but I know that I'll see them again someday.

And there would be a great God standing over us all, watching His children with much love and adoration no matter how angry, how destructive, and how corrupted we all have been to ourselves, our friends, and our family. We all are loved by Him.

This isn't Heaven. Heaven wasn't a dirty place that reeked with an awful stench, Heaven wasn't a place where I felt an ache in my head and heart, and Heaven wasn't a place where I felt more miserable than ever.

"This isn't..." I tell the girl, denying her words. "This is not Heaven!"

"Think what you want, fool!" the older girl snaps at me. "I don't care, so don't bitch to me!"

"Asuka-neechan!" the younger girl scolds the girl but the older girl isn't obviously listening.

I turn my head away from the girls and let my tears trickle down, wanting to block out the hurt and world around me.

**~.::.~.::.~.::.~**

No more. . . don't cry. . .

. . . hear me.

Wait for. . .

Only I can hear you!

"Huh?"

I blink up at the ceiling and I feel disappointed that what I awoken to wasn't a dream. I shift my head to the side and feel thankful that it's empty once again, I really don't want to talk to that little punk. I work to sit up, and with some effort, I achieve the goal and just simply sit there, lost in my thoughts.

_'What was that?'_ I wondered as I rake my fingers through my hair. _'I thought...'_

This isn't Heaven, I mused, but that didn't mean it had to be Hell. I'm here, wherever I am, and I'm not being totally terrorized so that has to be a good thing, too. Now I can put focus on what to do from here on out in this strange place of the afterlife, because it's all I can do, is just move forward from there. But first, I have to find those girls. A lot of apologizing to do for being an inconsiderate ass to those poor kids.

As I slip out of the covers, I notice I'm not dressed in what I had worn from before. Instead of skinny jeans, a T-shirt, sneakers and light blue sweater, it is replaced with a dirty white kimono that reached my shin, the dress also had stitches here and there from wear and tear and the look completed with a black sash. I really don't want to think about who changed me, I just hope they didn't see anything interesting.

I stand on my two feet, and it ain't an easy task. I felt like I haven't been walking in such a long time, like grandpa that got out of bed from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, like a handicapped person just began to get out of their wheelchair and walk for the first time in years. I lean on the walls for support for my shaky legs, practice walking to one wall to another in slow steps before my muscles began to get used to walking.

_'Baby steps, Su. Baby steps.'_

I slip out through the straw door and wince at the bright sunlight, I blink out the watery tears and take my time to adjust before I look again, and once more, I look on with disbelief.

It was like I landed in some Feudal era in the Japanese country. The houses, the streets, and the people just looked like something out of an old film or text book, all dressed in ragged kimono and walking around the dirt road barefoot.

"This is just too bizarre..." I mutter to myself.

"Ah? What the hell are you saying? I can't make sense to what's coming out of taht stupid mouth of yours."

I turn to my left and see the two girls from before coming towards me, carrying a bag. The older girl is dressed in a blue kimono today, the little one in green.

"G-good morning." I greet them meekly, still ashamed about yesterday.

"It's noon, dumbass." the older girl bluntly states.

"Asuka-neechan!" the young girl scolds the older girl with a scowl on her face. "Be courteous!"

"Whatever..." the older girl ignores her and tosses the bag towards me, which I barely catch and struggle to hold up from the weight considering my legs aren't working right for me. "Carry that inside."

"ASUKA-NEECHAN!" the young girl screeches in horror.

"O-okay," I struggle to carry the bag inside despite the younger girl's plea to carry it for me. "I got this."

"Uh-huh."

**~.::.~.::.~.::.~**

Kobayashi Asuka, the old girl, and Asako, the younger sibling. They both have been living in Hitodoma for 14 years, despite either of them looking like they haven't aged a day past 12.

Soul Society, the world where spirits go after they've died and been passed on by a Shinigami—A Death God equivalent of a Grim Reaper. In the Soul Society there are 320 districts that split in four parts with 80 districts of their own, from North to South, and East to West, and depending on the number of the district you are placed, you either live in good conditions or you end up in some place where there's murder, crime, and trouble.

Hitodomo happens to drift between the two places between good and bad.

Asuka sees my shaking form.

"If you think this place is bad, just wait 'till you go to the lower districts."

And I really don't plan on going there anytime soon, thank you very much.

In the center of the Rukongai districts stood a giant city that all can see from a distance in the slums. A place called Seireitei, the home of the Shinigami that all served in the Gotei 13.

"A bunch of high-riding bastards, if you ask me." Asuka says with a bitter tone.

Seireitei never allowed outsiders of the Rukongai to enter the sacred place, only those worthy could enter. A talent that the Shinigami look for when there was a time for recruiting fresh meat on the stocks.

They way she describes Seireitei and the Gotei 13 remind me the functions of a military base. While the city of the Death Gods is nice and happy-looking, they closed their doors on us poor souls to fend for ourselves unless there was danger related to their work... which came to the next subject.

Hollows. Monsters that the sad, forsaken, and unsaved souls of the deceased became, creatures with holes over their heart that left them mindless killing machines that hungered after pure souls and wished to be whole again.

"This is a lot to take in." I tell the sisters, my eyes peeking at the door to see it dark and the candles lit to illuminate the nearly empty streets.

"Didn't believe shit until I saw it with my own eyes." Asuka supplies nonchalantly, like she doesn't care if I believed her or not.

"It's really dangerous out here, so you have to be careful." Asako warns me gently. "There's been a lot of Hollows running amok lately, and some people are heading off to report it to the Shinigami."

"Like they'll do shit."

"Asuka-neechan!"

"Thank you," both girls look up at me in surprise. I give them a smile of appreciation. "I know you didn't have to take me in, but thank you for letting me stay here with you."

The older preteen only snorts at my direction and turns her back to me. "This ain't free, ya know! You have to work around here from now on, you idiot!"

"Okay," I smile none the less.


	3. Chapter 3

Dye the **BLACK**

—

**Summary:** Dying should have led my soul to Heaven, dying should have led my soul to peace, dying should have led my soul to the end for my final rest. Instead... dying led me to death.

**Rating:** T for violence, strong language, and some adult content.

**Disclaimer:** BLEACH belongs to Tite-sensei, Akasuki belonged to **Reige**, this story is adopted by me.

**A/N:** Haven't updated because I was celebrating two birthday parties from my niece to my little sister. Yeah, that, and I've been doing some cleaning around the house for days because of the numerous dishes left in the sink (total nightmare) and it would have gotten faster if the stupid dishwater to break on us! So yeah, my dad had me clean, go to birthday party, and clean some more. Hope you forgive me and enjoy this next chapter.

* * *

Endings are not always bad. Most times they're just beginnings in disguise.  
~ _Kim Harrison  
_

* * *

"Hurry it up, you pathetic slackers!"

It's no wonder Asuka comes home every day in a foul mood, wanting to grab the nearest thing to tear it to pieces of just punch somebody senseless.

Gekko Tousuke, our boss, is an asshole.

The following days since my arrival in Hitodoma, I found work alongside Asuka and Asako at the rice fields. I had to go through background checks to see if I wasn't some thief trying to worm my way in, and test my I.Q. and it turns out I was average and good to go.

It isn't much, getting payed minimum low wage and all, but it's all we could get from our efforts. The job is tough under the heat conditions and the people just aren't any friendly, they made Asuka look like a sweetheart! Pushy, snappy, down right nasty people that have an attitude problem, but I refuse to turn into them, Asako being my inspiration of having a good-hearted nature.

Not that I, nor anyone, can blame them for it. Everyone agrees that Gekko is a bastard.

Despite the fat boss' dictator qualities, Gekko is the best merchant in shipping the rice to any of his buyers that ranged from stores in other districts, restocks for the noble houses, and food distribution to the Academy for Shinigami-in-training. There's a lot of places that wanted Hitodoma's famous white rice and Gekko is a smart man for having founded this, thus flourishing it into a fabulous foundation to provide for customers that had a lot in their pockets.

The problem though with Gekko is that the fat ass is stingy when it comes to money.

Like I pointed out earlier, we all are paid in minimum low wage. The money was used to buy bodyguards for the rice field to prevent thieves from invading the private property, tools for the job, and transportation for the rice and the rest of the money was spent on useless things for the pig-bastard.

"Break!" someone announced.

"Agh, finally!" Asuka sighs in relief as she sags against the soft grass.

"We really did a lot of work today," Asako chirps as she digs in her small sack and pulling out fruit she purchased from the stalls on the way to work.

"Thank you, Asako." I tell the young girl and eagerly bite into my bright red apple.

The week that followed after my death, I sometimes still had a hard time believing that I am dead and that this place is supposedly the afterlife. Maybe I was in a coma, but I shouldn't be able to feel the heat of the sun, or the small ache of hunger lingering from the small meals me and the girls could afford, and the coldness of the after dark at night. I had been shot dead, too.

_'Am I really going to go like this forever?'_

"OI!" came Gekko's booming voice, destroying the peace. "I ain't paying you to sleep! Get your asses up and work!"

Asuka groaned and made to stand up, I quickly finish my apple and threw the core somewhere behind me, helping Asako pack up her unfinished meal

"Ow! What the—Hey! Who threw this apple at me!"

I froze and peek over my shoulder to spot one of the workers, a tall and older-looking teen with auburn hair spiked back. The one other thing I found odd in the afterlife besides the whole death, shinigami, and soul-eating monsters are the people with very weird hair and/or hair color. Have anyone ever seen a naturally blond Asian? Or a violet-haired man? Yeah, it gets weirder.

Back to the point. Big guy, weird hair, angry look on his face. I wisely kept quiet and—

"This one here did it." Asuka points at me.

_'What the FUCK?!'_ I gawk at her with disbelief.

The front of my light peach-colored kimono is grabbed roughly from the front and my tiny body is lifted up in mid-air where I am face-to-face with the auburn-haired man who had multiple veins looking ready to pop. Oh God, I feel like I'm about to piss myself.

"You think you can throw garbage around as you please, huh?" he demands. "Say something!"

"No! No, no! I didn't mean to, it was an accident! Honest!" I furiously shake my head and my voice reaching a high pitch from the fear of the man's violence. "Please, don't hurt me!"

"Leave her alone! She didn't mean to throw that apple at you!" Asako shouts at the man that hilariously stood twice her size.

"I ain't buying what you're selling, you ant-sized twit!" I clench my eyes as he shakes me roughly and I can only hold onto the man's wrist that's holding me up.

"Hey, you two!" another voice cuts in and we both look up to see Gekko standing at the top hill and staring down at us with disinterest as he eats his bowl of fresh grapes from the cool shade of his cart. "Take this fight elsewhere. You get blood on my rice and you answer to me!"

The bodyguards around him showed their weapons as a means of intimidation. I let out a small squeal as I am dropped suddenly on the ground and watch warily as the bigger boy gives one last dirty look my direction, pick up his sickle and follow his companions to the field. The rest of the workers that had been watching the scene went back to work without a word, not at all bothered at the sight of someone about to beat up a little girl.

"Asuka!" I turn to the girl in anger. "What the hell?!"

"I was bored." she deadpanned and I can't stop my jaw from dropping.

What. The. Fuck.

**~.::.~.::.~.::.~**

Okamura Natsu haunted my steps the week following the apple incident.

I was a paranoid mess, every corner I looked I swore I spot a spike of dark red-brown hair flashing away and the chill of someone drilling holes on my back with their icy glare. Asuka laughed at my wimpy attitude and Asako can only be sympathetic for my troubles, I just wanted to forget the whole thing and continue on with life but the big guy sure as hell had a grudge against me. I was too afraid to be by myself in fear I'll get cornered and beaten with an inch of my life.

"Hahahaha~!" Asuka laughed as we all walked back home.

"Shut up, this isn't funny!" I snarl at her back.

"Yeah it is!" she cracks up again, wiping the tears from the corner of her eyes.

"Asuka-neechan..." Asako mutters under her breath, exhasperated by her sister's cruel nature.

"I swear that guy is some phsychopathic serial killer."

"Hey," I look to see Asuka handing me a pouch full of kan (rings, currency of the Soul Society) to my direction. "Go buy food."

It wasn't much, Asuka still had her doubts about me. In a place like the Rukongai, nobody can really be trusted to hold your money, unless you were one of those people that lived high up in the better districts or belonged in some big-shot gang that you were too afraid to steal from. The two girls know I can't survive much on my own, and while Asako was willing to extend a hand, Asuka was smart to not trust anyone with an open heart, having been a victim of thievery on multiple accounts, so I didn't feel offended.

Instead of taking the money, I stare at the girl with a big-eyed look.

"What?" she narrows her eyes at me.

"Y-you're making me go? Alone?!"

"What are you babbling on about? Go get some food!"

"I'm not going by myself! What if that Natsu guy jumps me?"

"Your problem."

What a cold-hearted bitch.

And now I walk alone the dirt road, quick to find any open stalls that were beginning to close from the sun coming down over the trees and hills of the district. I also have to be careful around here, for pick-pockets and thugs looking for money or to start trouble. The trick is to look calm, don't show any signs that you have anything important on you, blend in with the crowd, and in under no circumstances attract any unwanted attention.

The stores are closing up fast that I have to pick up the pace a bit to reach the end of the stalls, hopeful in my trip to bring back something for me and the girls to eat, otherwise I'd get an earful from Asuka. I slow in my jog when I spot a small crowd, distracted with something that piqued my curiosity.

"Excuse me," I tap one older man's shoulder.

"Hm?" came a gruff response from the elderly man.

"What's going on?"

"Hmph! Someone's been killed again." the old man spat. "Hollows are wandering around the streets, and the damn Shinigami aren't doing anything!"

I stare at the old man, even as he looked away and back to the front. I stand there for what seems forever before my feet finally carried me away from the crowd and back to the trail of the stalls. I find one stall about to close just in time, grabbing whatever food I could afford with the kan, I head back home. But not the same way I came from, not wanting to come close to someone's dead body.

Even in death, you die here, too.

I've been hear for over 2 weeks and yet time seemed forever. My mind began to wander about what happened with my family and friends, about what happened to Steve McCoy. Despite being my killer, I couldn't hate him, I still remember how sad and angry his eyes are, can only imagine what his bastard of a father had done to make him that way. And then there's Brian, the boy who held my heart so easily, and the boy whom I lost when I died that day. How is he doing? Was he okay? Is he moving on? Is he happy?

So many questions and no one to answer them. I breathe deeply, not wanting to burst into an episode of tears again after the first few days of my stay in the Soul Society. It's hard to leave behind people you love so much, but it will be harder if you kept thinking about them with the regrets and sadness, I have to move on and live.

_'I can do this,' I tell myself with determination burning in me. 'I can so do thi—'_

Bump!

"Uh!" I blink out of my fire of determination stupor and I'm greeted with an open-shirt chest. I look up and all the fire burnt out and left nothing but ice blocks. "Ah...!"

Natsu stood over me, that ugly look on his face staring right back at my startled expression.

"Well, well," the auburn-haired boy sneered. "If it isn't the apple-throwing twit."

I gulped, taking a step back but a large hand came to rest harshly on the top of my head, flattening the antenna. Oh God! I was going to be given the biggest ass-kicking in my life and no one around would hear me!

"I-I said I was sorry!" I quiver under his dark beady eyes and clench them close when his other hand came towards me. "I'M SORRY!"

**_Crunch!_**

I blink my eyes open, staring at the chest still in front of me before my eyes dirft upward and freeze at the tall boy that munched innocently on an apple I bought only moment ago.

I just stood there, watching, waiting, listening as he ate the red fruit until nothing but the core was left of it. I freeze again when he returned his eyes down at my small feeble form and—

**_Thump!_**

The apple core falls to the ground after bouncing off my head.

"That was good." Natsu remarks as he pats his belly.

"Uh..." I say stupidly.

"Tch. You thought I was gonna beat you up, didn't you?" he snorts down at me with amusement shining in his eyes.

I guiltily nod, suddenly ashamed that I was being too judgmental on the auburn-haired boy. There was that saying; never judge a book by it's covers, and this book before me was a big misunderstanding.

"You're lucky you had some food, otherwise, I would have kicked your ass."

... Forget what I said just moments ago.

I spot his hand reaching for another fruit and come to realize he's picking away the food in my arms, the only dinner that Asuka trusted me to buy and bring home! And the sun went down! My God, the word just went dark and the girls warned me how dangerous it was to be out in the dark, with crime and dangerous people lugging around in the streets.

"Hey! No more! I only hit you with one apple!" I scold him and turn away in time for him to miss grabbing a delicious looking orange.

"Oh, finally grew some backbone, did ya?" he quirks a brow at me.

"I have to go," I tell him and move around him easily but stop short from the hand grabbing the back of the kimono's collar. For a quick terrifying second, I thought he would throw me on my back and attack me there, but nothing of the sort happened.

"You don't want to go that way," he spoke so softly that I almost didn't hear him. An arm stretches past me and points a finger at one direction, I squint my eyes and spot a group somewhat hidden between two shacks. "Those guys like very pretty girls, especially the lonely kind."

I stare at the group with wide eyes, the heart in my chest beating rapidly from the fear coursing through my blood stream. Natsu removes himself from beside me and begins to walk away, not saying anymore and not even trying to steal anything from me. I didn't want to be alone with those gang bangers just a couple of shacks away, I felt a shiver crawl up my spine when they turned and locked on my direction, cruel smiles with rotting yellow teeth presented my direction.

"W-wait! Natsu, wait!" I quickly jog after the tall boy.

"Eh?" he lazily turns to me. "What do you want? Didn't you say you have to go somewhere?"

"I do! I just..." I look down at the dirt floor. "I don't want to go by myself."

"I ain't gonna walk you home." the tall boy deadpans, I gape at his cold refusal.

"W-What?!"

"I don't do stuff out of the goodness of my heart. I like to be rewarded with things I've worked hard with, so unless you have money or anything else you can offer, you're on your own."

And he walked ahead of me once again, leaving me by myself.

I don't have any money, spent from the food that I bought for me and the girls to fill our stomachs with. What little food we've always had, I still felt the empty ache there from the pain of being very hungry, but I didn't say anything. Asuka and Asako work so hard to put an effort in living with what they have and they went out of their way to include me, the audacity of me bringing up that I'm starving would just be insulting and just plain rude! I can never ask for more, the girls are starving themselves, only fruits and some vegetables to eat off of, but the dull continued there in me.

Just how long can I last?

"Hey there," greeted a gruff voice from behind me.

The hair on the back of my neck erected high, goosebumps brimming up on the surface, and the ugly cool chill washed over my back and shoulders. I peeked over my shoulder and I thought I had died and gone to Hell, for the men around me looked more like vicious demons ready to maim, kill, and obliterate me. One uglier than the last, their clothes much torn up from fights with dark blotches covered here and there on their person and I didn't have to be a genius to know what those marks were; blood.

"What a pretty girl,"

"Mmm," one groaned as he approached me. "Wanna play?"

"Screw the game!" one of them growled, his pointed teeth grinning widely at me. "Let's just fuck this cunt!"

"Yeah! Fuck her!"

"Me first!"

"I saw her first, you—"

I ran. I clung to whatever I have in my arms and ran like Hell was on my heels.

"OI!"

"She's getting away!"

"Idiots! After her!"

I've already dealt with being killed by a shooter, I don't need another horrifying experience such as rape being another one of the ways I wanted to go. I run around the dim-lit streets of Hitodoma, never stopping to give the scumbags an opportunity to catch up to me, much less tackle me and have their way. I needed to lose them first and then head home, I don't want to be followed home and have the girls be put in danger because I wasn't watching my back.

Passing through a narrow alley between tight spaced shacks, I suddenly felt an uneasy wrongness alert my senses that I did not feel from the gang bangers. Like something in the air is trying to crush me, like the air itself was an invisible, large entity that wrapped me tightly within in its claws and began to drag me down to feel the creeping familiar feeling I only felt moments before my passing...

"GOTCHA!" I let out a scream as someone fell on top of my body, making me drop the fruit and tumble down on the hard dirt floor. "I got her! I GOT HER!"

Immediately, I felt hands grab my collar and begin to ruthlessly open it, and my reaction to protect myself going into instinctive mode; I clawed their face. The others began to catch up, joining in by pulling back my arms and helping disrobe me from my dull blue kimono. The disgust came over me as they peered own at me with those dark, lustful eyes and their mouth watering, wanting a taste of my body.

"No!" I give a shrill scream, tears coming over me. "Let me the fuck go!"

"Shut yer mouth, you cunt!" someone growls and slaps me.

"After you, it'll be me next." I hear someone say and the level of disgust of these men rose higher.

I struggled some more, trying to buck the person straddling my waist off. "FUCK OFF, ASSHOLES!"

"Noisy bitch!"

"Someone get a gag."

"I said shut u—"

"Oh boy," I snap my eyes open and look up to see Natsu standing a few feet away, not at all disturbed about what's happening. "I did tell you what happens when you go walking around with a sign that says you're up for trouble."

"Hey, who's this punk?" one thug whispers to another.

"Get lost! Or we'll kill you!" one of the bigger thugs stands up and pulls out a knife from the back of his sash.

Natsu ignores the men threatening to disembowel him as he is more intent on staring down at me. I'm terrified right now, I don't want to be taken against my will and I don't want these bastards to kill me either after they were through with using my body. I don't want to go through another horror, I don't want to be here in some alley getting raped!

"Please...!"

"Well?" Natsu urges me, his hands removing themselves from their pockets. "What's your answer?"

"Fucking bastard!" a thug lunged for him, ready to slash him open.

"SAVE ME!"

**_BAM!_**

I and the thugs watch as the heavy guy with the knife falls back with blood, a broken nose, and shattered teeth being his injury, and all eyes focus on Natsu as he stands in the middle of the alley, totally unharmed and undisturbed. A smirk creeped up in the auburn-haired teen's face and a cold look flashed in his eyes as he glares at the wretched men that still loomed over me with their dirty hands clutching my robes and limbs. Simply petrified of the tall, young, strong man that is moments away from beating the crap out of them.

"You heard her boys," Natsu popped the joints of his knuckles. "Fuck off!"

**~.::.~.::.~.::.~**

"Ugh! Where is she?!" Asuka growls as she looks at the window of their shack.

"I-I'm worried Asuka-neechan," Asako tells her older sister of her fear. "It's late and those horrible men come out."

It's been nearly 2 hours since the absence of their new resident and it left the two girls worrying little by little over the hours, wondering and asking themselves about the girl that had lived, helped, and ate with them. A small patch of guilt came over Asuka's chest, she was just trying to take a joke in sending the girl out but the fun's over and Akasuki has yet to have returned from her shopping.

The kan isn't much, it would probably buy 4 to 5 fruits if she balances the pay price right and the girl isn't stupid enough to run off with so little kan to get very far. Asuka bit the bottom of her lip and glared at the door a few minutes before she cursed under her breath and grabbed a lantern, lighting it up and heading outside with a hidden dagger tucked in her robes. Never can be too careful.

"W-wait! Where do you think you're going?!" her younger sister demands, alarmed of what her sister is doing.

"What do you think, idiot?" Asuka snapped.

"It's too dangerous!"

"And you want that bimbo out there to remain unfound until the morning?"

"... N-no...!"

"Seeing as this discussion isn't getting us anywhere, I'm going out!"

"Asuka—"

"And stay here!"

Without anymore words to say, Asuka barges outside to begin her search for the missing teen, easily avoiding suspicious-looking people and taking short cuts to get farther, calling the girl's name to see if it would get a response. So far, none.

_'Dammit! I shouldn't have left her alone!'_

**_HHOOOOOOOWWWWWWLLLLLLLL!_**

Asuka stood shock still from the distant howl of a monster somewhere loose in the Hitodoma district, haunting and picking people off. Goddamn Shinigami ain't doing shit to help out, either! With a guilty conscious, Asuka turns away and makes a run for home, not wanting to find herself in the jaws of death, she just hoped that nothing of the sort happened to Akasuki and that she's safe from harm—

**_Bump!_**

"AAaaahhh!"

"AAAAaaaahhh!"

Asuka panted before realizing it wasn't a Hollow she bumped into but her stupid younger sister that followed her even after she was told not to! Asako bowed her head in shame, feeling burning holes in her head for getting caught.

"I... I..."

"You IDIOT!"

"I'm sorry! I just wanted to help...!"

"You stupid, stupid girl! I told you stay home and yet you—"

"I wanted to find her, too!"

"Guys?"

Both girls pause from their yelling and look to the side to see two faces, one of them being the very person they were risking their necks in searching through the after dark of Hitodoma.

"Akasuki!"

* * *

We all sat on a nearby open hill that strayed from the small district, and everything is quiet after the long talk about how I went into the market, met up with Natsu, got attacked by rapists, and being saved by the man I first felt fear of. Natsu chomps off another apple, one that could have been dinner for me and my two shack mates.

"So let me get this straight," Asuka paces around the hill as the words come to process. "To pay this punk back for saving you, you're giving him half of our food for the next two weeks?!"

"Uh... yeah." I reply weakly, bowing my head.

"Unbelievable!"

"She was almost attacked, Asuka!" Asako snaps at her sister in my defense.

"Still!"

"ASUKA!"

"Well, it's getting later than usual and we all have work tomorrow," Natsu stood up to his full height and stretched out a little before catching my eye. "Be seein' ya, Aka-chan."

I groan a little and watch the older boy go off into the night while I received the biggest lecture of my life from the short girl, only half listening to a word coming out of her vulgar mouth until it was time to head home and catch some shut eyes. And I thought this past few weeks were tough, I can only imagine what comes up for us.


End file.
